love / hate

this house is totally a case of oooooh i love the interior, but blegh why did they have to put that white block in the middle of a street filled with pretty old houses? really? way to ruin the neighbourhood guys.

i can hear my dad in the back of my mind saying, no sense of place. with a disappointed shake of his head… and i’d have to agree! but i can appreciate the interior at least.

discussion is welcome, i’m sure opinions will be divided on this. via contemporist.

Agreed x3. Though before this post, I did not know about critical regionalism, so wanted to thank you for that reference. Gosh, and the phrase “no sense of place”, touche! I really enjoy your blog, which I recently joined via size too small.

dear missy mossy
i have never ever commented on a blog ever ever, but must disagree. i think it looks tres bien on that street. i think it sets both styles off does that make sense) (its three in the morning and four bottles of white down). i say awesome. who knows what my hangover will say.

I’m going to be contentious and say that the new white block juxtaposed against the sweet cottages draws attention to both. best of both worlds. Miss Moss, your blog is my favourite read – keep up the great work!

i laso have to disagree with you, miss moss. i quite dig the look – i only wish it was painted a different colour from white. maybe a dark charcoal or grey or some such? i like how different it is from all the other neighbourhood houses. it works! the interior is genius – great use of space!

I thought it was my home country when i saw the pics and it is! I cannot decide if i like it or not….i proberbly like it now cause it looks so fresh but in a year I will just want it be a road of old swedish houses like allways. They are indeed so pretty.
I must say its pretty daring of the architect too… Maybe the old house was so bad they couldnt fix it and isnce it cost more to fix up on old house then to make a new…
Helena

i knew there would be differing opinions on this :) and i’m not surprised so many love the house!

i’m not against modernism at all, but i think that in such a historical street perhaps considering the context would have been appropriate. i’m also thinking about the structure that used to be there – it always saddens me when a building that’s over a hundred years old (or more) gets knocked down … but i’m a vintage lover so i guess that’s expected.

also, there’s something that bugs me about that white block. it just seems so cold & closed off to the street – whereas the houses surrounding it have doors, windows… they seem far more welcoming. i keep thinking about the saying “no man is an island” – that’s how i feel about this house, it seems quite isolated from its neighbours.

Sorry, I’m very late on this topic…I agree and disagree:)
To me, architecture offers a solution to a problem in the language of its time. To build a reproduction of the houses surrounding it, would make the entire design exercise redundant and remove any potential for dialogue. There is no development or growth in duplication. Design becomes stale and stagnates (eg. Tuscan villas in Pretoria)

On the flip-side, as much as the shape could work, the materials/building techniques chosen do not reflect the locale of the building. This white monolith says nothing of the area. This was a prime opportunity to take traditional approaches to living and building and create a modern vernacular unique to the area, instead it seem the architect has chosen to build a house as suited to the moon as a side street in Sweden.
Btw. This is what the article says about the site:”Since mid 20th century it has been empty, waiting behind a wooden fence” So, no pretty cottages were harmed in the making of this ode to 2001:a space odyssey.

pieter, i see your point. but i have to say that of course tuscan houses do not suit pretoria because pretoria is not tuscany. if people were to knock down all the “tuscan” houses in tuscany and replace them with concrete blocks, that would be pretty tragic.

that’s not to say that i don’t support growth or new design. the surrounding buildings could have been a wonderful influence on a modern interpretation for the new building. as you said, it says nothing of the area or even the street that it’s in – and that’s my main gripe.

I am a lover of all thing old but I also recognise that for society to growth, its important to sometimes embrace the new… especially if its not at a risk of loosing the old… at first glance, I was shocked but then it grew on me …the juxtaposition is welcomed in this case… and looking at the interiors, I think harming the neighbourhood was never the owners’ intention. They look like people who probably appreciate architecture and civilization and would probably protect the legacy of the neighbourhood. I admit though, they could have at least made it the same height as their neighbours :-) a certain level of uniformity is always appealing to the eye.